📶 Naval's latest project

Why the AngelList founder is betting on the future of social audio

April 16, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

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Good morning 👋

All weekend, my Twitter feed was full of people talking about Airchat.

I wanted to see what all the hype was about, so we break it down in this week’s piece.

Let us know what you think at the bottom of this email.

TL;DR:

NEWS
Hear me out 🎧

Airchat, a social media app that centers around voice-based interactions, was relaunched by AngelList founder Naval Ravikant and former Tinder executive Brian Norgard.

The app, which had undergone a complete rebuild since its initial launch last year, debuted its new version on both iOS and Android. It’s currently invite-only, but the app is already #27 on the App Store despite not being open to the public.

The main difference between Airchat and other social media apps is that Airchat encourages users to engage through audio posts that are automatically played upon opening the app.

Why it matters: 

Short answer: because Naval is involved.

Longer answer: untapped social dynamics

Airchat is betting on the power of voice to foster deeper, more personal connections online. Compare this to the often impersonal nature of text-based communication.

The app's design allows for asynchronous, threaded conversations, which could attract users who prefer to think through their responses without the pressure of live interaction, appealing especially to introverts. This approach aims to transform social networking by making digital interactions feel more natural and less curated.

What happens next: 

We’re cautious any time a new social category emerges, and we don’t know what the future holds for Airchat.

That said, any time a new social media category exists, other platforms take notice and copy features that grab the most adoption. We expect this to happen whether Airchat is successful or not.

Naval has already said that he is not prioritizing revenue any time soon, so all of the company’s resources are going towards building product and improving their retention graph. We’ll stay tuned.

Read more: 

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P.S. Here are the results from our poll question in last week’s piece:

Which category of companies are you most bullish on today?

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 SaaS (14)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ Dev tools (10)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Fintech (7)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Infrastructure (9)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ Healthcare (13)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ APIs (10)

63 Votes

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